The work plan of
future agenda items was received and noted by the Committee.

RESOLVED

1.
That the Work Plan be noted

4.

REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION

4.1

European Union Elections Update

The Committee to receive a verbal update on
the preparations for the European Union Elections.

Minutes:

Robert Curtis, Head of Electoral Services,
presented a verbal update on the preparations for the European
Union Elections 2019. Mr Curtis informed the Committee that
confirmation had been received this very afternoon that the
Elections would be going ahead on Thursday 23 May 2019. Members
were given a detailed summary of the time line of events leading up
to the Elections, the processes that have been followed and the
preparations to date. The following salient points were also
noted;

-
That Lewisham were the London Lead Authority for the EU Elections
2019, the Regional Returning Officer was Janet Senior and Will
Tuckley, Chief Executive, was the Local Returning Officer for Tower
Hamlets.

-
That there were eight MEPs to elect.

-
The count would take place on Sunday 29th May 2019 for
all local authorities and the count for Tower Hamlets would be held
in East Winter Gardens in Canary Wharf.

-
The results would be declared at 10pm on the Sunday.

-
That Police Officers would not be based in all Polling Stations,
the RAG (Red, Amber. Green) rating had been reviewed and 11
stations had been identified as stations where there could be
potential problems of intimidation and congregation and it had
therefore been agreed that those 11 polling stations would have a
Police Office present at the station.

-
That there would be mobile police units patrolling around all
stations throughout the day.

-
All European Union citizens (26,133) registered in LBTH were
written to explaining that should they register to vote here, they
would be disenfranchised and unable to vote in their country if a
Brexit agreement is made and therefore this would be to their
detriment.

-
That 75 polling stations in the borough had been pre-booked and
1500 staff had been contacted to work on the Elections.

-
The Notice of Election had been published on 15 April 2019.

-
That 18,731 EU citizens were emailed directly with the form and
link to register to vote in the UK.

-
That there were 21 parties/candidates and the ballot paper was 2
½ feet long.

-
Polling cards had been sent out last week, and postal vote packs
were ready and would be posted out Friday 10 May.

-
That the Communications Team would be using twitter, Facebook,
Council’s website and press releases to keep everyone
informed and updated.

-
That the verification of the ballot boxes would be done on Friday
24 May in the Town Hall, the introduction of this process would
make the count on Sunday more effective and robust.

-
The ballot boxes would then be transferred to East Winter Gardens
on the Sunday for the actual count.

In response to questions from The Committee
the following was noted;

-
That systems were now in place to make the count more robust,
proactive and faster than in previous years.

-
That the count should start early on the Sunday to avoid any delays
in declaring the result.

Runa Basit, Head of School Governance and
Information, introduced the report, which summarised applications
from three persons who had applied to be nominated
for appointment as a Local Authority Governor at Tower Hamlets
maintained schools.

The Committee considered the
report, and agreed to the reasons for restricting the appendices.
The types of candidates approved for submission was noted as well
as the different ways that people can become governors. It
was noted that that all candidates meet with the Head Teachers and
Governors before an application is supported and nominated to be
considered for a Local Authority Governor position. It was further
noted that once an appointment is made by the Local Authority,
further checks and measures are undertaken in order to confirm a
Local Authority Governor appointment.

The Committee considered the information
supplied, including both the unrestricted and restricted reports.
Following a detailed discussion the Committee raised concerns about
the applicant nominated for George Green School. The Committee were
of a unanimous view that appointing the applicant may bring the
Council into disrepute. In reaching this decision reference was
made to paragraph 469 of the Election Court Hearing delivered on
the 23 April 2015 by Commissioner Richard Mawrey QC in which there
were comments about the applicant.

Therefore, the Committee decided to refuse the
nomination/application for appointment of Local Authority Governor
for George Green School. The Committee asked the Corporate Director
Governance and Monitoring Officer to carry out the relevant due
diligence checks and report back to the Committee with
advice.

Members agreed to nominate two of the
applicants for the school governor positions and refuse the
application for the nomination for George Green School.

Accordingly, the Chair
Moved and it was:-

RESOLVED

1.That the following applicants for appointment to
Local Authority School Governor positions as set below be
approved;

Thomas Buxton Primary School- Mr Sajjid Miah

Alice
Model Nursery School – Deirdre Dixon

2.The Head of School Governance and Information
to review how governor appointments/nominations are
made and processed, and what due diligence checks are undertaken
before an application is brought to the Committee.

Runa Basit, Head of School Governance and
Information, introduced the report, which summarised the breakdown
of equality information and demographic of Local Authority
Governors currently in the borough and included a breakdown of
equality information for governors overall.

It was noted that the current data held by the
Local Authority did not include all equality information for
governors as some governors had opted not to provide this
information to Governor Services.

Ms Basit explained that the information
provided was subject to the current information on the database.
The reasons for the unknown figures were based on a number of
factors such as governors not returning forms, data missing on the
system or forms being incomplete.

In response to questions from the Committee
the following was noted:

-
That Governor Services would be carrying out work to obtain
equality information from all governors – where information
was missing.

-
The planned next steps to further improve diversity on Governing
Boards across the borough and Governor Services would be working
with Inspiring Governance to support this work.

-
That the table for the breakdown of ethnicity should include
governors of Somalian origin and other groups which are
underrepresented.

-
That equality information on forms were not mandatory and therefore
this was often hard to collate.

-
That the equality form was now electronic, and the forms were
included as part of the welcome pack and given out at training
sessions.

-
That Governor Services are not informed of all governor
appointments – and this was an area of communication that
needed to be worked on.

-
That the current priority was to target the 59% that ethnicity was
unknown for, Officers had been in the process of sending emails and
letters to extract that information.

Accordingly, the Chair Moved and it was:-

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

That a full summary of the findings
and a detailed analysis from the works currently being undertaken
is produced at a future meeting of the GP Committee.

The Head of School Governance and
Information, to work with the Divisional Director, HR, to share
best practices on how to collect and collate data.

·The successful recruitment to the position of the
Corporate Director of Resources; Corporate Director Place; and
Divisional Director Adult Social Care.

·That the recruitment process was underway for
Divisional Director Housing and Divisional Director Planning and
Building Control (shortlisting meeting on 8th May 2019
and final interviews on 16 May 2019).

·That a recruitment agency had been successfully
appointed for the post of Divisional Director Finance, Procurement
and Audit and that a full time table of the recruitment process
would be reported at the next meeting.

·That this was the first time in three years that all
senior management posts had been permanent.

·Members extended their thanks to Amanda Harcus and
the HR Team for all their work on the recruitment
process.

Accordingly, the Chair Moved
and it was:-

RESOLVEDto:

1.
Note the current position on the recruitment to senior management
vacancies in the Council structure</AI10>

<AI11>

.

5.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS WHICH THE CHAIR CONSIDERS URGENT

Minutes:

Nil items.

6.

EXCLUSION OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC

In view of the contents of the
remaining items on the agenda the Committee is recommended to adopt
the following motion:

“That, under the
provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as
amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985,
the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting
for the consideration of the Section Two business on the grounds
that it contains information defined as Exempt in Part 1 of
Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.”

EXEMPT SECTION (Pink Papers)

The
exempt committee papers in the agenda will contain information,
which is commercially, legally or personally sensitive and should
not be divulged to third parties. If
you do not wish to retain these papers after the meeting, please
hand them to the Committee Officer present.

Minutes:

RESOLVED

1.That in accordance with the provisions of Section
100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local
Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the press and public
be excluded from the remainder of the meeting on the grounds that
the remaining agenda item contained information defined as exempt
or confidential in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government
Act 1972.

The Local Authority
Governor Applications appendices are exempt by virtue of
paragraph(s) 1, 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government
Act 1972. The appendices will be
considered during item 4.1 on the unrestricted part of the
agenda.

Amanda Harcus, Divisional
Director, HR, presented the report andsought
approval for the dismissal of six employees on the grounds of
redundancy, where severance packages exceeded the £99,999
threshold set out within the statutory guidance issued by the
Secretary of State under section 40 of the Localism Act 2011. It
was noted that these dismissals were the result of two separate
reviews conducted under the Council’s Handling Organisation
Change Policy.

The Committee considered the
report.

The Chair Moved and it
was:-

RESOLVED to

1.Approve the dismissal of those employees as detailed
in the report through redundancy.

2.Noted the severance packages that apply to the
dismissals arise as a result of the individual’s contractual
terms and conditions of service.